has no existence in the real man. Will as purpose involves time and is a quality of mortal man. She says: “Will,—the motive power of error; mortal belief. * * * A wrong doer.”[1] “Will-power is capable of all evil;”[2] “Human will belongs to the so-called material senses;”[3] “Every function of the real man is governed by the divine Mind.”[4]
Spinoza has the same view exactly as to the necessity of man's actions. Explaining will away, just as Mrs. Eddy does, he says: “A particular volition and a particular idea are one and the same.”[5] This is his way of proving that “will and understanding are one and the same”. His conclusion is that the “mind is determined to wish this or that by a cause”,[6] and the cause of all ideas is God.[7] This is again the ground for his conclusion that nothing is contingent; that all things, human actions as well as natural events, are causally determined. He says: “It is in the nature of reason to perceive things truly, namely, as they are in themselves, that is not as contingent, but as necessary.”[8] The thought is that we see things as they really are when we see them as necessary and not as contingent. Proclus appears to advocate the same view when he says that Providence or the superintending deity sees indefinite things
- ↑ S. and H. p. 597.
- ↑ S. and H. p. 206.
- ↑ S. and H. p. 144.
- ↑ S. and H. p. 151. cf. p. 424.
- ↑ Eth. 2. 49. Corollary, Proof.
- ↑ Eth. 2. 48.
- ↑ Cf. Eth. 2. 7. Note and 2. 9.
- ↑ Eth. 2. 44. Proof.
